Thursday 17 March 2011

We are in Wakayama

We arrived at the in-laws yesterday evening, seems so  weird down here business as usual, only a couple of the channels on the TV are showing the earthquake news. I met someone on the train that I haven't seen for years, she was booked on a flight back to Ireland with her 7 week old, 18mth old and husband.
I still keep thinking that the ground is moving and have to check if anything is swinging or whether it is just me, it's like the feeling you get after getting off a rough boat ride.

It is really hard for foreigners here, the information we are getting from the Japanese is that, yes it is a concern but nothing to panic about, the radiation levels are low the foreign media are swinging the other way and making it sound like another nuclear disaster like Chernobyl. Which means we have family back home worrying and us here wondering what the hell is the best thing to do. If you are overseas please take a moment before contacting loved ones here and think about the comments/messages you send, media hype that had no scientific back up does not help the situation and do read articles properly not take the headline out of context. For those of us here, the decision to stay or go is hard enough but it should be based on sensible facts not hyped up media rubbish. The Brisish Embassy have good solid info written in simple English (that is to say I understand it), it is clear and answers a lot of questions. If you are worried about the radiation issue I recommend you take a read, here.
Several of my friends have either left or have flights booked but many don't have that option and my Japanese friends think that it is unnecessary. Who knows?

Hopefully they will get things under control at the power plant soon and then we can head back home. I will keep you updated here, although I am using ji-chans computer and it's all Japanese and a windows machine so this will be at a basic level until I can figure it out!

I am hoping to catch up with Jacqui AKA Meeabee whilst we are down here, she may be putting the friend I met on the train up so we will see.

I went to the eye doctor today, yesterday by the time we got here, my eyes were a right mess, I could barely see and just wanted to scratch them out. Turns out I have a type of hay-fever which is caused by the campor trees, I have never had it before and yesterday just happened to have an extremely high pollen count!

I never thought I would say this since I was never a big fan of Facebook but it has been a godsend for keeping people back home and keeping in touch with friends here. (After the blog started getting more popular (you know, not just my family and mates reading it) I decided to keep FB just for close friends and family, please don't be offended if I have no accepted your request, I am sure you appreciate that I need somewhere a little more private sometimes.

I have a little time now so I am starting on the master list for the appeal, thank you to everyone who has got involved now we are here I will try and keep on top of things.

7 comments:

  1. hi Jo, I remembered reading that you asked for comments here rather than an email(??) so just a quickie to say that my raffle will be posted on my blog today :-)
    love to you all
    Sarah xxx

    ReplyDelete
  2. It must be hard that you only get news on Japanese TV.
    Maybe you already know, but here is NHK world news in English available on the internet at NikoNiko-Douga.
    http://live.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv43483520
    Also, if your family computer is too old to use, you can go to so-called "Net Cafe"in Wakayama city. If you need a help to search, let me know.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks! Got most of the links up ready to go, got a few more to add now.
    Jii-chans laptop is fairly new but I am used to using a mac in English so it is taking me a while to figure out the basics lol

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi there, I've blogged about my raffle here, so please add me to your master list, and thanks for kick starting this!

    Andrea

    http://liligo.ca/blog/2011/03/japan-quake-appeal/

    ReplyDelete
  5. Glad to hear you and your family are in a good place. My parents here in the US are so concerned with my ILs, they keep insisting they come over and leave Japan. But my ILs and my husband keep telling them it's not necessary (besides they'd stay with us, not my parents anyway, haha).

    So even though we're not there, we understand the difficulty that comes with all these hyped up media reports all over the world regarding the nuclear plant, while in Japan things seem much calmer. *sigh*

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  6. Jo, I will post on my blog my raffle later today.I will be back with the link.
    LOve and big hugs
    Patty

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi Jo,
    I just posted my Raffle here ::
    http://paper-and-string.blogspot.com/2011/03/raffle-for-japan.html
    I said it before but you are a SuperStar for organising this :-)
    love Sarah x

    ReplyDelete

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